Smart phones and digital cameras will be used to catch traffic offenders

Traffic policemen have been told to use their smart phones or digital cameras to take pictures of cars or motorcycles which violate traffic laws and then send the pictures and tickets to the violators.

Pol Maj-Gen Adul Narongsak, deputy commissioner of metropolitan police in charge of road traffic, explained Wednesday that the use of smart phones or digital cameras by traffic policemen was just a temporary measure to supplement the shortage of surveillance cameras to monitor traffic.

Budgetary constraint, he said, has held back the plan to increase the number of surveillance cameras. However, he added that there are more than 4,000 traffic policemen and they can enforce the traffic laws as good as the CCTV.

The deputy commissioner disclosed that he would prefer a road space being spared at traffic lights for motorcycles to stop in front of cars rather than being squeezed between rows of cars but that could not be made possible because it was against international regulation.